SCHOOL OF ROCK

2003/ Director: Richard Linklater/ Writer: Mike White

Cast: Jack Black,  Joan Cusack, Mike White, Adam Pascal, Lucas Papaelias, Chris Stack, Sarah Silverman,  Chris Stack, Lucas Babin, Joey Gaydos Jr., Miranda Cosgrove, Frank Whaley

A few things make this movie a special entry into the now growing list of  Uranium Café  movie commentaries. It is the first entry into my new comedy category. I love a good comedy film and this one is a great one, which I shall expound on further soon enough. I can be really picky abut comedies and find most modern comedies really lacking. Along with being a genuinely funny film it is also more of a popular and financially successful film than most of the selections I pander to here, which typically tend to be rather obscure films for one reason or another. For example, perhaps they are great films, like The Servant or The Collector, but cater to a more selective audience. Or maybe they are just bad films and cater to hardly anyone but people like me who have a streak of masochism in them. I would bet that most readers of the Café have heard of School of Rock (or The School of Rock as it is sometimes listed) whether they have seen it or not. Another thing that sits this film apart is that it falls into a unique category (maybe I should create one with this title) of films I have seen more than ten times.

There is a special reason for this I should explain. Because I was an evil man in my past life and I must work out my bad karma in this one while I still have time I am now teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) in China. When there is a day when I just cannot bear to listen to my lazy ass students I (like any other poor soul trapped in a similar situation) I fall back on the mutli-media learning center or, room with the DVD player and projector as it should be called. One has to be selective about what they show of course and two movies I love to show the most is Eight Legged Freaks and School of Rock, with The Incredibles coming in third. Those films will wind up on the Café in due time. For now we take a look at one of my very favorites films of all friggin’ time… School of Rock.

The film is directed by Texas native Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused, A Scanner Darkly) and written by Mike White, who also stars in the film. It was conceived written with Jack Black in mind as the lead character, Dewey Finn. Dewey is basically a loser with minimal talent but high in the sky rock-n-roll aspirations. He comes from the old school of rock music when the scene was dominated by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, The Who and all the other truly great bands. His taste is impeccable, but it is his marginal talent and ego-centric attitude that gets him booted from his band No Vacancy. This puts Dewey in a pickle since he was counting on winning this year’s battle of bands and using the cash to sort out his life. Among life’s pressures is the fact he is behind in rent to his roommate and former rocker (from the Goth band Maggot Death) and now substitute teacher Ned Sneebly, played by Mike White. Then to top it all off  there is  Ned’s overbearing girlfriend Patty, who would like nothing better than for Dewey to hit the road, whether he catches up his back rent or not. With his back against the wall Dewey takes on a substitute teaching job meant for the now responsible Ned at the number one private elementary prep school in the state, Horace Green Elementary. He is greeted by the high strung Ms. Mullins-played deftly by Joan Cusack- and is introduced to his class, a collection of serious students all with eyes on ivy league colleges and gold stars on the performance chart. The chart is ripped to shreds by Dewey who exclaims “What kind of school is this!” and he proceeds to assign recess to the class while he watches the clock tick away.

Things change when Dewey discovers a lot of the class are talented musicians and his sites are set once again on the battle of the bands and the $20,000 prize. He gets his gear from his beat up old van and Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love plays as he runs down the hall and prepares to introduce the students to new class project… a live rock and roll show that all schools will competing in and will land the winners a recommendation to a top ranking college on their permanent records. The kids are all perfect comedic foils for Jack Black to play off of. Summer Hathaway is the class “factotor” who is as serious a student as there is and has no intention of being a groupie for Dewey’s project and is promoted to band manager. Zach is the talented but melancholy lead guitarist who is has some home problems with his over controlling father. Lawrence (Larry) is a shy, insecure Asian kid who plays hot keyboards and is assured by Dewey that he is way cool and will be the “bee’s knees” onstage. Katie, called Posh Spice in a great scene, is the steady playing bassist who Dewey teaches to show a pouty face. On drums is class rebel Freddy Jones (“Spazzy Magee”) who struggles with his instrument but is soon studying Keith Moon, Buddy Rich and Ed Shaughnessy. Other classmates include the swishy “Mr Fancy Pants” Billy who designs some snazzy glam rock outfits for the band that sends Dewey into a fit, Tomika, an insecure over weight girl who belts out Aretha Franklin tunes, and a collection of back up singers and security personnel that collectively have a perfect and rare film chemistry.

Needless to say there are hurdles galore with trying to set up the gig with Ms Mullins and the show organizer (Frank Whaley) but in the end they get the chance to play. In a classic scene they celebrate their enthusiasm while Led Zeppelin’s The Immigrant Song blares over Dewey’s van speaker. Jack Black actually begged the surviving band members to use the song. It was a difficult task  given the band’s  reputation for not allowing their songs or logos to be used to benefit someone else’s commercial undertakings. A video of Black begging in posted below.

It is uncovered of course that Dewey is not a teacher and has been pretending to be Ned all along after Patty rats him out and even calls the cops on him. But in a scene “…that is so punk” the kids get the school bus to take them to the “Mozart concert field trip” and pick up a despondent and beaten down Dewey who gets out of his bed and goes out to do the only thing he can do… rock. He admits that Zach is the better player and song writer and they play Zach’s song School of Rock (If You Wanna Be A Teacher’s Pet), rather than Dewey’s epic opus,  Legend of the Rent. They lose out to his old band of posers No Vacancy and again Dewey is shattered, but the kids remind him that rock is not about winning or losing but about putting on one great show, which they did. The movie wraps up the dissatisfied audience chanting “School of Rock…” and they return for an encore of AC/CD’s It’s a Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock-n-Roll. The humor continues as the credits roll and when it is all over it is a movie I could easily sit and watch again in a day or two if I had a hankering.

I really am not sure why I do not tire of this film. On one level it is really just a formula film and the type I normally avoid. The characters are stereotyped and the storyline is predictable even before you watch the movie. Losers or outcasts find themselves by the end of the movie by being true to their dreams and doing the best that they can. If only real life were so simple. Everyone’s self esteem is bolstered after performing the song they worked so hard at and against the wishes of everyone else in the film who only wanted to hold them all down. There is not a bad word in the film nor any overtly sexual situations or violence. It is good clean fun and whenever I play it for my students here it is received with enthusiasm. They laugh at all the funny parts (remember that English is not their native language) and get the moral of the story, whatever that may ultimately be. I avoided this movie for a couple years because I just did not think I would like it. The picture of Jack Black with a Gibson SG surrounded by little kids just reeked of corny formula. And on one level it is just that, but it is so well done and so enjoyable I can only say if you have not seen it yet please run out and get it. It is one worth owning. And in a potentially controversial statement I feel much better than Black’s other rock-n-roll movie Tenacious D.

JACK BLACK BEGS LED ZEPPELIN TO USE THE IMMIGRANT SONG FOR

CRUCIAL SCENE IN SCHOOL OF ROCK

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Comedy, Cult Films and Oddities, Music-MP3s, Videos . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.